Mini wind turbine blade types and applications

Right now we offer 3 blade types for our mini wind turbines. They include High Performance 12.5” diameter, 3 blades with hub 18” diameter and 5 blades with hub 18" diameter.

Generally, if you have more blades, your turbine will work in lower wind speeds. However, more blades are not necessarily better. More blades can be bad with high wind speeds because they limit how fast your turbine can rotate. A 3 blade assembly can max out at a higher RPM than a 5 blade. Therefore, it can be a complicated choice.

When deciding which blade type to use, you should reference a wind map even if you already have an idea of what wind speeds you’ll have.

We recommend the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s 30m wind map of the United States. You may find similar maps if you live in a different country.

When referencing the NREL’s 30m wind map, keep in mind 10mph is about 4.5m/s, 20mph is about 9m/s and 30mph is about 13.4m/s. Also keep in mind this map shows average wind speeds and they are measured 30 meters from the ground.

As you can see, the highest wind speeds are seen in a vertical zone starting from the Texas panhandle and going all the way up to North Dakota. If you live in these areas, we would recommend our High Performance 12.5” blade so you can get the maximum output from your turbine.

The Southern and South Eastern states have some of the lowest wind speeds and therefore we would recommend our 5 blade with hub package. This way your turbine starts in the lowest possible wind speed.

There are other factors to consider too. Islands like Puerto Rico and Hawaii have extremely well-suited winds for harvesting energy. We would suggest our high performance 12.5” blade for any island or beach application.

To summarize, we came up with the table of recommendations below:

Average wind speeds

0-10 mph

11-20 mph

21+ mph

Blade option recommendation

5 Blade with hub

3 Blade with hub

High performance 12.5” blade

Important note: Our blades and hubs are very easy to remove and replace and it only takes about 1-3 minutes to do so. All you need is a 2.5mm Hex wrench, which we include. If you are unsure, we would highly suggest ordering 2 or 3 different blade types so you can do some trial and error.

As always, please don’t hesitate to ask any questions about which blade option you should choose. We would be happy to share our experience with you in order for you to get the most out of your turbine.